Miramar

Maureen Foster's letter ("Nostalgia for a Santa Barbara Resort," May 26) about missing the Miramar in Santa Barbara made me want to weep, as I do every time I drive north into Santa Barbara and look for the dear, familiar blue sign beckoning from the beach side just before the San Ysidro exit. Alas, no more sign, no more lolling on the beachfront deck waiting for room service to deliver the BLTs, and no more reasonably priced access to the ocean. In its last year, I made a point to stay at the Miramar several times, and drove up just for lunch the week the dining room was to close, to dine before all the silverware disappeared as souvenirs.

The Peninsula Beverly Hills and the Fairmont Miramar Hotel Santa Monica are the L.A. area hotels that made Orbitz's 2012 Best in Stay list of top places to stay worldwide. The online travel company culled 200,000 hotel reviews and polled some travel experts to create the list that ranks the best hotels in 75 destinations. Winners in the West include the Argonaut in San Francisco, the Bellagio in Las Vegas, the Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage and the Governor Hotel in Portland, Ore. The Four Seasons in Vail, Colo., was dubbed the best ski hotel, and Banyan Tree Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, most romantic.

While the airport relocation process continues, one issue that has not been reviewed is the safety of Miramar. Operating tactical aircraft on combat duty training missions has resulted in 22 fighter crashes within Miramar's 14-square-mile "crash zone" since the early 1970s. A commercial airport on Miramar would be safer and quieter than the current Navy operation and remove much air traffic from above San Diego. But, if Miramar is not the choice for San Diego's regional airport, steps must be taken to ensure safety around the Navy base.

High-profile developer Rick Caruso got his long-standing wish Tuesday: a tax break that could be worth more than $15 million for knocking down Montecito's dilapidated Miramar Hotel and building a luxury resort on the star-crossed site. An eyesore whose boarded-up cottages and weedy lots have irritated neighbors for years, the Miramar was a chic destination in its day. Its last guests left 12 years ago; but even a string of celebrity owners, such as hotel mogul Ian Schrager and Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner failed to revive it. Caruso, developer of The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles and a possible mayoral candidate, has owned the property since 2007, shelving his development plans when the economy soured.

Hotel impresario Ian Schrager, whose hip holdings include West Hollywood's Mondrian and Miami Beach's Delano, is on a buying spree that includes the historic-but-faded 214-room Miramar in Montecito and 684-room St. Moritz in Manhattan. He's also casting his buying eye on The Clift in San Francisco, which he already manages.

A Norwegian tourist went on a rampage in this Mediterranean resort, wrecked his apartment and injured nine policemen in a pitched battle before he was overcome with tear gas, police said Friday. Jorn Windinsstadn, 25, went berserk in his vacation apartment in the Miramar complex, police said. Riot police were called after he ran from his apartment and broke up a bar.

A sheriff's deputy was injured Wednesday at the Miramar Training Facility when a grenade he was demonstrating blew up in his hand, a department spokesman said. Lt. Dennis Cole was taken by Life Flight helicopter to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he was listed in good condition Wednesday evening. Cole, commander of the Sheriff's Department's special enforcement detail, was demonstrating the use of a spingball grenade at about 1:30 p.m. when it detonated, said spokesman John Tenwolde.

When I read your Sept. 9 article about the renovation of Montecito's Miramar Hotel, I recalled the summer of 1945, when I stayed there for 10 days while recuperating from the Battle of the Bulge in Europe, 1944-45, the German prisoner-of-war camp near Hanover, Germany, and the miserable conditions of the prison camp. What a great hotel--midnight snacks, buffet-type dining tables, stocked refrigerators, swimming pool, ocean beaches, nearby Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. I had been a member of the American 106th Golden Lion Infantry Division in Europe.

denver -- Newmont Mining Corp. is reaching into the Arctic Circle for its next project, agreeing Tuesday to pay $1.53 billion for Miramar Mining Corp., which controls one of the largest undeveloped gold properties in North America. Newmont, one of the world's largest gold producers, said the acquisition would pave the way for the creation of a mining district in the remote region of Canada's Nunavut territory. Newmont, which already owns a 9.

When Rick Caruso bought Montecito's Miramar Hotel in 2007, it was a long-vacant, fenced-off, dilapidated eyesore. Five years later, the fences are still up, the windows boarded, the paint peeling. In a community of sky-high hedges and imposing gates, it's still an eyesore. "I'm embarrassed we haven't been able to get it built," Caruso told Santa Barbara County supervisors at a meeting last week, "but it hasn't been for lack of trying. " Caruso, a celebrity developer who is considering a run for mayor of Los Angeles, was asking for a $15-million tax break that he said can speed transformation of the beachfront property into a new five-star hotel.

As a combat medic in Vietnam with the Army's 1st Air Cavalry Division in 1968 and 1969, John A. Smith III risked his life repeatedly to rescue wounded comrades. He was wounded three times and awarded the Bronze Star for valor. After years of surgeries and rehabilitation, Smith moved from New York to San Diego in 1982 and took a job with the U.S. Post Office. He rarely talked of his combat experiences, but he routinely visited veterans in local hospitals, served as the announcer at the Veterans Day parade and volunteered at the California Veterans Home in Chula Vista.

Rooms at the tony Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica are on sale for a limited time starting at $229 a night on the members-only travel site SniqueAway . The deal: Rooms at SniqueAway’s special rate are available while they last. The 302-room Fairmont Miramar is a vintage hotel on Wilshire Boulevard not far from the beach. You won't find this deal on the hotel's website; it's available only on the SniqueAway site. To take advantage of the offer, sign up to be invited and then register for free.

For five decades, shotgun enthusiasts were able to visit the Miramar military base for target practice and skeet shooting. In 2008, 95,000 rounds were fired by members and guests of the San Diego Shotgun Sports Assn., which ran a 29-acre range on the base. Now the military has closed the facility out of concern for the toxic contamination caused by years of lead shotgun pellets landing in a 13-acre "overshot" area next to the range. The issue has provoked an unusual clash between the Marine Corps and possibly its biggest supporter in Congress, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Alpine)

Army deserter and antiwar activist Robin Long said Friday that the most difficult part of his 12 months behind bars was being away from his young son. Long, 25, released Thursday from the brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, said he missed celebrating Christmas and other special occasions with his 3-year-old son, Ocean.

Against all odds, not one, but two excellent hotel restaurants have opened in the last few months. First, we had the Bazaar by Jose Andres, the dynamic tapas restaurant in the new SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills. And now we have Fig in the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica. OK, there's no ocean view: all the better to focus on chef Ray Garcia's cooking. Never heard of him?

After evaluating a recent San Diego Assn. of Governments study to find a replacement site for Lindbergh Field, county supervisors Tuesday backed two locations at or near Miramar Naval Air Station as the only ones suitable for a new international airport. Of the three sites--Miramar, Miramar East (West Sycamore Canyon) and Otay Mesa--listed in the December 1989 Sandag study commissioned by the City of San Diego, supervisors backed two.

Miramar Hotel developer Ian Schrager has revised his rebuilding plans, deciding to reconstruct the coastal landmark in stages rather than all at once. "In many ways, we would rather wait, follow our original plan and build the entire Miramar project all at once," the New York-based hotelier said in a statement. "Yet we listened to the community and the message was loud and clear ... to get started on this project."

Antiwar activists have taken up the cause of an Army deserter who was deported from Canada and is now being held at the brig at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Two dozen members of Military Families Speak Out and San Diego Veterans for Peace protested Tuesday afternoon outside the base in support of Robin Long, a onetime Army private who was sentenced in August to 15 months behind bars and a dishonorable discharge.

Following a rebuke from the Montecito Planning Commission on Wednesday, mall developer Rick Caruso said he would consider selling 14 acres of beachfront property rather than conduct additional environmental studies on the site of his proposed luxury resort. "I just ask let me out, let me go. Let someone else take this on," Caruso said.